Container for storing and dispensing small solid materials

ABSTRACT

A container for storing and dispensing pills is provided. The container has a housing with an upper end and a lower end and a plurality of compartments therein. The compartments have an open end adjacent the upper end of the housing and a lower end adjacent the lower end of the housing. The lower end of each compartment has an opening with a hinged door covering the opening. A cam having a cam surface is attached to the door so the cam rotates as the door opens and closes. A cam follower pin abuts the cam surface and the cam follower pin is constrained to move along a predefined path. The doors can be opened manually one at a time or all together by pushing downward on a centrally located handle at the top of the container. When opening all the door simultaneously the handle can be retained in the door open position by sliding two flanges beneath the handle into a slot and rotating the handle left or right. The housing is mounted to a rotatable lazy-Susan base.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not Applicable

STATEMENT RE: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND

Consumers who take vitamin pills often purchase larger quantities ofpills to save money. These pills are usually contained in larger jarswith screw caps. To dispense pills it is necessary to remove the jarfrom its storage location and unscrew the cap of each jar to pour outthe required number of pills. Flip tops on the caps still requireremoving and replacing each pill jar from its storage location. If aconsumer takes multiple types of pills this process becomes a cumbersomeand time consuming procedure. Additionally, pharmacies dispense pills byopening a storage jar, selecting and counting out the required number ofpills, and placing the selected pills in another smaller pill jar whichis labeled with instructions related to the use of the pills. Again,this process is time consuming. Further, without the pharmacist openingthe storage jar and looking inside the jar it is difficult to visuallysee how many pills remain. This complicates restocking and anuninterrupted supply of the pills to the customers. There is thus a needfor an improved mechanism and method of storing and providing pills toperson taking multiple pills.

BRIEF SUMMARY

To avoid the described problems with dispensing pills the presentmechanism and method was devised. A pill dispenser is provided having aplurality of compartments, preferably six, each with a spring loadeddoor which can be opened individually, by lifting a selected doorindividually by hand, or all doors opened simultaneously by pushing downon the centrally located handle at the top of the container.

When a spring loaded door is operated individually, by hand, it returnsto the closed position when the door is released, with a resilientmember such as a spring closing the door. When all the doors are openedsimultaneously, by pushing the centrally located handle downward, thehandle can be locked in the down position thereby holding all the doorsin the open position. The handle is secured in the down position byrotating the handle so that a flange beneath the handle is slid into aslot on the container. Further rotating the handle to align the flangewith the slot releases the handle so that a handle return spring canreturn the handle to its extended position. When the handle moves upwardthe return springs on the doors close all the doors. A cam mechanism islocated on a projection extending inward from the door. The cam engagesa pin shaped cam follower which moves up or down according to therotational position of the door from the open to the closed position.

Each compartment has a horizontal portion covered by the door, and alsohas a vertical portion extending upwards toward the top of thecontainer. A removable lid at the top of the container allows the pillsto be placed into each compartment where gravity urges them downwardinto the horizontal dispensing portion. Preferably, but optionally, thebottom of the container rests on a lazy-Susan type of base to allowrotation of the compartments. The dispenser, or at least the outerportion of the compartments, are preferably made of material that issufficiently transparent, or translucent, so that a user can see thepills and thus more readily gauge the number of pills remaining forestimating usage and for restocking.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the various embodimentsdisclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the followingdescription and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like partsthroughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 a is a sectional view taken along section 1-1 of FIG. 2 with adoor raised;

FIG. 1 b is a sectional view taken along section 1-1 of FIG. 2 with adoor lowered;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along Section 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along Section 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 a is a partial view taken along section 4 a-4 a of FIG. 2,showing the entire door actuating mechanism, with the cam actuatedportion enlarged;

FIG. 4 b is a plan view taken along section 4 b-4 b of FIG. 4 a;

FIG. 5 a is a partial section view taken along Section 5 a-5 a of FIG. 5b, showing a side view of the operation of a door and cam mechanism withthe door raised;

FIG. 5 b is a partial section view showing a top view of the operationof the door and cam mechanism of FIG. 5 a;

FIG. 5 c is a partial section view taken along Section 5 a-5 a of FIG. 5b, showing a side view of the operation of a door and cam mechanism withthe door lowered

FIG. 6 is a partial view taken from Section 6 a-6 a of FIG. 4 a;

FIG. 7 a is a partial view showing the handle actuating mechanism;

FIG. 7 b is a sectional view taken along Section 7 b-7 b of FIG. 7 a;

FIG. 7 c is a sectional view taken along Section 7 c-7 c of FIG. 7 a;

FIG. 7 d is a sectional view taken along Section 7 d-7 d of FIG. 7 a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIGS. 1-7, the dispenser 100 (FIG. 1) is preferably usedfor dispensing pills, but may be used to dispense other items. Thedispenser 100 has a plurality of compartments 19 (FIGS. 1,3,5 a),preferably six such separate compartments or chambers. The compartmentscan have various shapes and are shown as having a generally J-shape witha lower, generally horizontal portion 19 and a vertical portion 20joined by an inclined or curved back wall 39 (FIG. 1). The shape of thedispenser 100 can vary, but is preferably polygonal or cylindrical, andis shown as having cylindrical section 1 (FIGS. 1, 2) formed largely bythe vertical portions of the compartments 20 (FIGS. 1, 2, 3) andhorizontal compartments 19 (FIGS. 1, 3, 5 a). The dispenser 100 has abase 2 (FIGS. 1, 3) which is generally flat and which rests on or isconnected to a mounting plate 3 (FIGS. 1, 5 a). The mounting plate 3 ispreferably, but optionally constructed like a lazy-Susan, with alazy-Susan bottom plate 4 (FIGS. 1, 5 a) and rollers 9 (FIG. 1, 5 a) toallow rotation of the base 2 relative to the lazy-Susan and its bottomplate 4. The lazy-Susan rotates around the centrally located spacer 11(FIG. 1) to maintain alignment and to secure the bottom plate 4 to themounting plate 3.

Each horizontal compartment 19 has an access door 5 (FIGS. 1, 2, 5 a)rotatably fastened at hinge 17 (FIGS. 1, 2, 5 a) in order to selectivelycover an opening in the lower portion of the compartment 19 with whichthe door 5 is associated. The lower opening in the compartment 19 islocated and sized to allow a person to easily remove items such aspills, from the compartment.

The upper end of the dispenser 100 has a lid 6 (FIG. 1) which may beclosed or alternatively removed in order to allow access to thecompartments 20. The upper portion of the compartments 20 thus open ontothe top of the dispenser 100 and are covered by the lid 6. Preferablythe lid 6 comprises a flanged screw top having internal threads on theflange that mates with external threads at the top of the dispenser 100to removably fasten the lid 6 to the dispenser 100.

A centrally located handle 7, preferably but optionally formed like aball on the end of a shaft (FIGS. 1, 6, 7) is used to open all the doors5 simultaneously when the handle is pushed downward. It also acts as alifting device. The handle 7 is retained by a retaining pin 32 (FIG. 7)which is threaded into the handle by threaded rod end 40 (FIG. 7). Whenthe handle 7 is pushed downward flanges on the handle push against thetube support hub 12 (FIGS. 6, 7) which is attached to three equallyspaced plates 13 (FIGS. 1, 2, 5 a, 7) which move downward. The outermostedges of the plates 13 are attached to elongated members such as tubes18 (FIGS. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) which move downward with handle motion. Acompression spring 41 (FIG. 7) returns the plates 13 and handle 7 to theextended position. The retaining pin 32, spring 41, tube support hub 12and plates 13 are all supported by the central shaft 10 (FIGS. 1, 6, 7)which is a part of the cylinder. The plates 13 slide within threeequally spaced slots in the central shaft 10 (FIG. 7 a). Immediatelybeneath the handle 7 is a lower flange 33 (FIG. 7 a) which slides into aslot 34 (FIG. 7) and when rotated to the left or right stops 35 (FIG. 7a) prevents the handle 7 from returning to the extended position therebyholding the doors in their open positions.

A close-out plate 15 (FIG. 2) is preferably, but optionally, provided tocover any open areas between the doors 5 as shown in FIG. 2. The shapeof the close-out plate 15 will vary with the shape of the compartments19, 20.

Referring to FIG. 2, six webs 24 (FIGS. 2, 3) are formed inside thecylinder 1 to form and define the sides of at least a portion of theupper compartments 20 and also preferably define the sides of thehorizontal compartments 20. The number of webs will vary with the numberof compartments 19, 20. The lower portion of each compartment 19 ispreferably, but optionally, rectangular in shape rather than pie shaped,and thus pie-shaped sections are formed between the lower portions ofeach compartment 19. Attachment lugs 14 (FIG. 2) are located in thesepie-shaped locations and attach cylinder 1 to the base 2 by posts 21(FIG. 3) on the base 2. The base close-out plate 15 covers any openareas of the base 2 and is secured by any suitable fastener. Thedepicted embodiment uses screws threaded into posts 22 (FIG. 3) on thebase 2.

FIG. 3 shows a cross-section through the container beneath the baseclose-out plate 15 and illustrates the six compartments 19 and theattachment points 21 on the base to connect the base to the cylinder 1and attachment points 22 to connect the close-out plate 15. Abase-to-cylinder screw 36 (FIG. 1) can also be used to attach the base 2to the cylinder 1. FIGS. 4 a and 4 b shows a cross-section through thecontainer depicting the entire door actuation mechanism in the door 5open and closed positions, shown in a flat plane to illustrate itsfeatures for individual operation and simultaneous operation of thedoors 5.

During use the lid 6 is removed or opened and pills or other items areplaced in the upper, vertical portion of the desired compartment 20. Thedoors 5 are preferably closed during the loading process. The uppercompartments 20 are preferably large enough that an entire container ofpills or other items can be emptied into one of the compartments. Thepills are guided into the lower horizontal portion of the compartment 19by the curved or inclined back wall 39. As more pills abut the inclinedback wall 39 the pills are urged toward the front of the lower portionadjacent to door 5. The lid 6 is then closed or refastened. Afterloading, the container is placed in its storage location for usage. Whenit is desired to dispense pills from the container 100, the container isrotated on its base 2 to the appropriate compartment door 5. The door 5is opened by manually engaging a portion of the door. The door 5 couldextend over the compartment 19 or could have a specifically shaped tab,both of which are included herein when referring to projecting tab 16(FIGS. 1, 2). The projecting tab 16 is preferably located along thedistal edge of the door but could be on a side of the door if it ismanually accessible. As the door is opened the cam 8 (FIGS. 1, 2, 4,5 a,6) bears against the cam follower 37 (FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) moving itdownward compressing the spring 28 (FIGS. 1, 4, 5, 6) which is retainedby upper retainer 27 (FIGS. 4, 5 a, 6) and lower spring guide 29 (FIG.4). The upper spacer 26 (FIGS. 1, 4, 5, 6), lower spacer 38 (FIGS. 1, 4,5, 6), spring 28, upper retainer 27 ride along guide shaft 30 (FIGS. 4,5 a, 6) which is retained by threads in the base 2 at the shaft attachpoints 23 (FIG. 3). When the door is opened the pills or other items arethen removed from the compartment 19 by fingers or spoons, etc. Once thepills are dispensed the doors 5 are closed by releasing the door tab 16allowing the return spring 28 to close the doors.

When it is desired that all doors open and stay open simultaneously thecentrally located handle 7 is moved to activate a linkage mechanismultimately engaging cams 8 as best seen in FIGS. 1, 4, 6 and 7. Thehandle 7 and its shaft are pushed downward causing the three plates 13to move downward within the three slotted webs 43 (FIGS. 2,7). Theplates 13 have one end fastened to a tube support hub 12. The shaftportion of handle 7 passes through the center tube of the hub 12 so thata flange on the handle 7 abuts and pushes downward on the hub 12 andthus moves the plates 13 downward. The plates 13 extend outward from thehub with the other end of the plates being fastened to elongated members18. The plates 13 extend laterally outward from the central handle 7.The plates 13 are preferably rectangular in cross section. Whilereferred to as plates 13, they could take any form sufficient for thepurpose. There is one plate 13 for each two compartments 19, so thenumber of plates will vary with the number of compartments. The threeplates thus have elongated members 18 attached to their distal endswhich move downward as the handle 7 is moved down. The elongated members18 preferably comprise tubular members and referred to as suchhereinafter.

The tubes 18 slide vertically along a retaining rod 44 (FIG. 6) whichextends through the tubes. A bottom end of the rod 44 rests against andis preferably fastened to the mounting plate 3 (FIG. 1).

The tubes 18 bear against the crosspiece 31 (FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 5 a, 6)pushing it downward against a resilient member such as compressionspring 42 (FIG. 6) which optionally encircles the retaining rod 44 toprovide a captive spring. The crosspiece 31 comprises several laterallyor outwardly extending members each of which has an opening throughwhich passes one end of the guide shaft 30. The downward motion of thecrosspiece 31 in turn causes the crosspiece 31 to bear against upperspacer 26 (FIG. 6) on the guide shaft 30 causing the spacer 26 to movedownward and bear on the lower spacer 38 which in turn moves downward.The lower spacer 38 is resiliently urged upward 26 by a resilient membersuch as coil spring 28 which encircles the guide rod 30. The lowerspacer 38 contains the cam follower 37. The cam follower 37 isoptionally in the shape of a pin 37 extending from opposing sides of thelower spacer 38.

The spacers 26 and 38 are preferably tubular sleeves through which theguide rod 30 extends so the spacers 26, 38 move along the length of theguide shaft. The guide shaft 30 is vertically oriented, parallel to theretaining rod. Thus, movement of the handle 7 and its single shaft movethe plates 31 to move one or more cross-pieces. Each cross-piece movestwo cam followers 37. Each cam follower 37 moves one door 5, with thecam follower 37 moving along the vertical axis of guide shaft 30 whilethe cam 8 (and door 5) rotates as it moves past the follower 37.

The cam 8 is preferably a part of the door 5 and integrally molded orformed therewith and thus the cam 8 and door 5 rotate around the doorhinge 17 to open and close the door over the horizontal compartment 19.The cam 8 shown in the door 5 open and closed positions preferablycomprises two parallel cams (FIGS. 5 b and 5 a) spaced apart so theguide shaft 30 passes between the cams. That construction helps preventthe cams 8 from sliding laterally off the cam follower pin 37 since theparallel cams are constrained to move along the length of the guideshaft 30 which extends between and preferably abuts and slides along theparallel cams 8. The downward motion of the cam follower 37 acts againstthe cam 8 and rotates the doors to the open position. Release of thehandle 7 allows the return springs 42 to close all doors simultaneouslybecause the springs 42 move the cross-pieces 31 upward and as the forcefrom the cross-pieces 31 are removed the springs 28 move the lowerspacer 38 and its cam follower 37 upward. The spring 28 provides aresilient force to urge cam follower 37 and thus cam 8 and door 5 towarda closed position.

The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation.Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devisevariations that are within the scope and spirit of the inventiondisclosed herein, including various ways of configuring the shape of thecompartments 18 and of varying the number of compartments. Moreover,while the springs 28, 41, 42 are shown as compression coil springsinitially affecting movement of the cam pin 30, the springs could belocated to primarily act on or contact the cam 8. Further, the variousfeatures of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone, or invarying combinations with each other and are not intended to be limitedto the specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope of theclaims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments.

1. A container for storing and dispensing small solid materials,comprising: a housing having a centrally located longitudinal axis andfurther having an upper end and a lower end with a plurality ofcompartments therein, the compartments having an open end adjacent tothe upper end of the housing and a lower end adjacent to the lower endof the housing, the lower end of each compartment having an opening witha hinged door covering each of a plurality of the openings; a pluralityof cams each having a cam surface, each cam attached to one of aplurality of the doors so the cam rotates as the attached door opens andcloses; a plurality of cam followers each abutting and translating alonga different one of the cam surfaces, each of the cam followersrestrained to move along a predefined path as the door attached to thecam is opened and closed; a tab on one or more doors sufficiently largeto allow manual opening of doors individually and against a resilientmember urging the doors to a closed position; a centrally located handleonly on a top of the container connected to a linkage mechanism thatmoves the cam followers to open all doors simultaneously when the handleis pushed down, the handle located on the longitudinal axis; the linkagemechanism comprising a crosspiece located outward of the longitudinalaxis and connected to move downwardly with the handle, the crosspiecemoving first and second sleeves each sliding along a different one offirst and second retaining rods which are generally parallel to thelongitudinal axis, each sleeve connected to and moving with a differentcam follower.
 2. The container of claim 1, wherein the compartments havean inclined or curved back wall oriented to direct items from the upperportion toward the door covering the opening in the lower portion. 3.The container of claim 1, wherein the housing has a base connected to arotating support so the container can rotate.
 4. The container of claim1, wherein each cam has opposing cam surfaces and one of the camfollowers is located between those opposing cam surfaces.
 5. Thecontainer of claim 1, wherein each of the cams comprises two parallelcams offset a distance apart to straddle a shaft from which one of thecam followers extends to engage each of the parallel cams.
 6. Thecontainer of claim 1, wherein there are six compartments, each with aone of the doors covering the opening to the compartment.
 7. Thecontainer of claim 1, wherein the housing has a base connected to arotatable base to rotate the housing.
 8. The container of claim 1,wherein each of the cam followers comprises a pin.
 9. A container forstoring and dispensing small solid materials, comprising: a housinghaving a centrally located longitudinal axis and having an upper end anda lower end with a plurality of compartments therein, the compartmentshaving an open end adjacent the upper end of the housing and a lower endadjacent the lower end of the housing, the lower end of each compartmenthaving an opening with a hinged door covering the opening; a cam surfaceextending from at least some of the doors and a different cam followerabutting each cam surface, each cam follower being slidably mounted tomove along an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis with the cam or camfollower resiliently urged to a position corresponding to a selectedposition of the door; a centrally located handle having a shaftextending therefrom along the longitudinal axis with at least one flangeextending outward from the shaft and sized to fit within a slot on thecontainer when the shaft is rotated, with engagement of the flange andslot holding the shaft in a predetermined vertical position relative tothe housing; and means for moving the cam follower by moving the handle,the means including a linkage having a crosspiece located outward of thelongitudinal axis and moving with the handle, the crosspiece movingfirst and second sleeves each sliding along a different one of first andsecond retaining rods which are generally parallel to the longitudinalaxis, each sleeve connected to and moving with a different one of thecam followers.
 10. The container of claim 9, wherein there are sixcompartments.
 11. The container of claim 9, wherein there are sixcompartments each with a rectangular opening covered by the door. 12.The container of claim 9, further including a return spring to push thehandle back to an extended position thereby moving each of the camfollowers to a door closed position.
 13. The container of claim 9,further including a return spring resiliently urging the handle andflange into a position away from the slot.
 14. The container of claim 9,further comprising means connected to the housing for rotating thecontainer.
 15. A container for storing and dispensing items from coveredcompartments, comprising: a housing having a plurality of compartmentshaving a vertical portion extending along a longitudinal axis and ahorizontal portion with an opening in the vertical portion to introduceitems into the compartment and an opening in the horizontal portion toremove items upward from the compartment and a plurality of covers eachentirely covering one of the openings in the horizontal portion; a camextending from each of at least some of the covers, the cam engaging acam follower pin constrained to move in a vertical path with a resilientmember resiliently urging the cam and cam follower into a position inwhich the cover blocks the lower opening associated with each cover; acentrally located handle movably mounted along the longitudinal axis; alinkage mechanism connecting the handle to each of the cam follower pinsso that movement of the handle along the longitudinal axis moves the camfollower pins against the force of the resilient member associated withthat cam follower pin, the linkage mechanism having a crosspiece locatedoutward of the longitudinal axis and moving with the handle, thecrosspiece moving first and second sleeves each sliding along adifferent one of first and second retaining rods which are generallyparallel to the longitudinal axis, each sleeve connected to and movingwith a different one of the cam followers.
 16. The container of claim15, further comprising a rotatable base fastened to the housing to allowrotation of the housing about the vertical axis.
 17. The container ofclaim 15, wherein the cam comprises two parallel cams offset a distanceapart to straddle a shaft from which the cam follower extends to engageeach of the parallel cams.